The Obama Re-election Juggernaut, or Jugger-naught?

I remember reading about the Obama’s White Whale, code name Narwhal, several months ago. And now, it looks like it’s “Game On” in Chicago (h/t Buzzfeed Politics). While RNC Chairman, Reince Priebus, makes “caterpillar” comments, the Obama campaign is greased, oiled, and unleashed.

There are now close to 700 hundred full time employees, an entire floor of office space, thousands of volunteers in well over 100 field offices across all 50 states, and the most impressive digital team a presidential campaign has ever assembled.

These days, the campaign’s Rapid Response team has reached out to reporters covering Romney, providing a rebuttal to every speech. They’re also in full-on courtship mode with a press that complains of a lack of access to Romney and his top aides. Obama’s headquarters averaged about ten visits a week from reporters over the past month, aides said.

Meanwhile, back in Republican-land, they’ve obviously recognized they’re behind the curve. Straight from the RNC website:

For Developers – Want to change the world one code line at a time? GOP.com is recruiting volunteer programmers to help bring our Party into the twenty-first century. Find out how your coding skills can help change our country’s direction.

Ya think?

Several pages are devoted to getting people involved through social media outreach, and Romney does have a pretty decent Facebook page, but is it enough to overcome years of technology preparation, savvy, and the Narwhal database. There doesn’t appear to be a technology war room that spiders throughout the US akin to the Dems.

But it’s not only about technology; technology/social media are only channels for getting the message out. With the addition of Ed Gillespie, and other national campaign veterans, perhaps we’ll see more pointed, targeted messaging (Mitt has some great one-liners; he needs to use them more) that rallies the base, speaks to conservatives and independents. The President can’t run on his record, therefore, it’s the repetition of the Obama record, keeping it front and center, along with a solid, simply articulated message that contrasts Romney’s vision for America vs. the President’s that will win this election.

If Romney can do that, then the Juggernaut may turn into the Jugger-naught.